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8 THE STTNTSTV SOUTH, ATLANTA, QA., JUNE 29, 1895.
Shall Marriage Be Regulated?
THE SUNNY SOUTH
PUBLISHED BT
THE SUNNY SOUTH PUB. COMP’Y.
BUSINESS office:
Constitution building, Atlanta, ca.
HENRY CLAY FAIRMAN,
EDITOR.
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ance of writings unless they are submitted in
good literary form.
The Injustice of the Spoils System.
When, in a little corporation where
there are two hundred voters, a hun
dred and one carry an election by a
majority of two over ninety-nine on
some not very material issue and the
victors thereupon proceed to appropri
ate to themselves all the offices of
honor or emolument, to the ntter ex
clusion of the ninety-nine, * the spoils
system is sin in its ngliest aspect.
These excluded ones may be as honest
and as patriotic as their opponents.
There may be among them those the
better fitted both by natural endow
ment and by onlture to have control
of the public interests. Yet are they
by this system denied any share in the
direction of affairs. Because of opin
ions. which perhaps have nothing to
do with the matters likely to be sub
mitted to their direction, they are ex
cluded from all control. This looks
like persecution for opinion’s sake, and
when thns presented does not afford a
high estimation of the reasonableness
or juslioe of democracy. But this view
ia not the only one that can be taken.
This exclusion of the better element
from a potential voice in government
cannot oontinue always. If the oppo
sition be not factions, bnt moderate
and firm' it will make itself felt.
Those in authority will be almost sure
to oommit some aot of insolenoe or in
justice whioh will give their oppo
nents an advantage. Besides, there
are almost sure to be some not so far
blinded by party spirit as to proofed
to any lengths under the diotation of
Party leaders. The outs may always
anticipate with a good deal of confi
dence that they will have their day—
that the tide will turn.
This apprehension on the part of
those in possession of a turn of the
tide Always gives to the minority a
Urge amount of influence. However
proud and insolent the viotors may
feel, they know that there is a point
beyond whioh it will be unsafe for
tbum to proceed. While they may ex-
•lufla their opponents from the honors
and emoluments of office, they dare
Bftt utterly ignore their feelinge and
IftlMtl. ThU mitigates in M slight
degree what might be intolerable tyr
anny in party rule.
But despite all this, the spoils sys
tem is both unjust and unsafe. It
serves to intensify a disposition al
ready strong enough to allow loyalty
to party to take the place of devotion
to country. It gives encouragement to
tbe idea which needs no encourage
ment that offices are favors to be con
ferred as rewards for services to party
rather than as trusts committed to the
worthiest citizens. This it is which
imparts the greater part of the bitter
ness to political contests. Those who
are struggling for places for them
selves are much more apt to oherish a
hatred for their opperents than they
who are striving for the establishment
of some great principle. We do not
expect to see the day when partisans
will not be actuated largely by the
hope of personal gain. Bnt every pa
triot should try to lessen it.
L. L. V.
A Texas Wonder.
The Black belt of Texas in the
Brazos valley has produced an extra
ordinary negro girl, if reports are to
be credited. She is about eighteen
years old. and he r mysterious exploits
began since her recent conversion to re
ligion. She began by healing the sick
by touch, one of her most notable cures
being that of an old black man who
had been a crntch-using rhenmatio for
twelve years. Whether he has re
mained sound since the miracle the
reporter does not state. The girl has
b e i going from place to place “ ex
horting, prophesying and healing the
sick, ” and is followed by crowds of
negroes who fear and worship her.
But she is asserted to exhibit more
unusual powers than those alluded to.
It is claimed that she has been brought
up in dense ignorance, not even having
mastered the English alphabet. Yet
she reads as well as if she had had the
bsnefit of a college education. She has
also the powers of Lulu Hurst, the
famous white Georgia girl. A party
of hunters from Louisiana happened in
her neighborhood and went to see her.
She placed her hands against a wall
and they attempted by their united
strength to detach her from [It. They
raised her body from the floor and
pulled at her lower extremities with
all their strength but totally failed of
their purpose. She seemed literally
glued to the planks. It may be, how
ever, that the shock which they expe
rienced upon tonching her prevented
them from grasping or pulling effect
ively. She is a walking battery of
vast electric power. She is also a mys
terious musician of the Blind Tom
class. She never saw a piano or organ
until recently, bnt she was able when
first introduced to those instruments
to improvise entrancingly, and repeat
the musio of trained mnsioians after
hearing their performances a single
time. Her genius for musio embraces
the use of all the different instruments
that have ooxne into her hands.
In addition she is said to display
olairvoyant powers—telling success
fully of the whereabouts of - missing
people, and lost live-stock. She also
foretells rains and storms.
The world will probably beoome ac
quainted with this girl if reports are
not exaggerated, as the showmen are
already trying to indnoe her to display
herself on the “boards.”
Toombs is quetid as having said
that “geaiue is hard work.” If ha
said this he made a great mistake,
and one that is common to men of ex
traordinary powers of mind, Any
iron ore makes pig iron, b t only a
speoial sort makes steel. All ease
men are oapable of development and
improvement by means of mental in
dustry, hut eaoh is limited as to
heighth and breadth of atftaiaxntnt by
the gifts whioh began with hla con.
•option, To intellects like these ef
Stephens and Toombs a hint was as
instructive as months of study to the
average mind. They were born with
the genius for preceiving, storing,
prese v ug, and nsing thoughts and
facts.
It is we?l to teach all girls and
boys to labor incessantly with high
aims but it is cruel to lead them to
dream that they may all become Geo.
Eliots and Robert Toombsea by in
dustry. We once knew a great lawyer
who was accustomed to attribute the
failures of all inferior lawyers to
laziness. Bnt his eminenoe was fore
seen even in his youth. He was ripe
in wisdom before he bad had the
time to draw conclusions from ex
perience and cogitation. Never hav
ing experienced mental difficulty, he
was incapable of comprehending th^
status of the average mind.
One by one they yield to the pres
sure of reason and justice. John Tem
ple Graves says the arguments of wo
man suffrage are nnauswerable. and
now Bill Arp quotes the remark with
apparent approval. “Didn’t we told
you so?” Gentlemen, conservatism is
good when it does not become radical.
Society owes its growth not to those
who are always pulling back on the
yoke, but to those who are lunging
forward. Mankind would be infinitely
more comfortable and happy if the
vast majority would impulsively push
the oat off the fence to the side where
they think he belongs, instead of wait
ing for him to jump when he gets his
nap out. The same truth is well illus
trated by the ruinous ccn lition into
which the people have sank by sleep
ing while the usurers have been “fix
ing” the public finances so as to best
subserve their own selfish ends. They
were warned many years ago of the
minister purposes of the demonetizers
and contraotionists bnt turned a deaf
ear to the prophets.
Harvey, the author of “Coin's Fi
nancial School” is to the present re
bellion against the gold monopoly
what Thomas Paine was to the Amer
ican rebellion against Great Britain
in 1776. For a good many years past
intelligent men have been saying in
undertones what a few so-called”dan
gerous agitators” have been saying in
print: that the time is not far distant
when monopoly will appoint figure
heads called presidents, judges, sena
tors and congressmen, who behind the
ontward forms of republican govern
ment will in reality be engaged in ex
ecuting the deorees of their real mas*
ters, the Plutoorats. The gold conspir
acy is a fact, and not by any means a
new or newly-disoovered faot. Up to
this time the people either oould not
or wonld not see their imminent peril.
It has been reserved for Harvey to tell
the tale so effectively as to carry the
truth home. “The honr and the man
have come.”
One of the ablest arguments that
have been printed in the interest of
the free ooinage of silver at 16 to 1 is
from tbe pen of Neill S. Carothers, of
Chattanooga, Tenn. It presents the old
positions in new lights, and has some
new and brilliant points both of offense
and defense. The author is profoundly
versed in his inbjsot, and without onoe
losing his head, sounds a note of patri
otic indignation whioh magnetises the
reader from the beginning to the end
of hie powerful pamphlet. Coin Pub
lishing Company should make this lit
tle (yet big) work a part of their sil
ver series.
Keep your eye on Senator Ben Till
man, of Booth Carolina. Ha has al
ready exhibited many masterful
qualities, both of brain and iexrt, and
it is not improbable that he wiU be
the Cromwell of the giganftio revolt
now organising afainsf the gold eon-
spiraey,
There are few intelligent people who
have not at some time or other bad
their attention directed to the singular
fact that no organized effort has ever
been made by government to regulate
marriage with the special view of the
physical and mental improvement of
the human race. Everybody knows
that scientific selection in the rearing
of the lower animals has resulted in
ohauges for the better that have
seemed little short of miraculous; yet
notwithstanding this amazing object-
lesson men and women drift on from
generation ‘to generation afflicting
their issue with deformity, consump
tion and insanity which might be com
pletely eradicated if they would only
take home the teachings of scienoe to
themselves. Dr. Forbes Winslow, a
great London physician, has been talk
ing recently to a reporter on this sub
ject and we quote him as follows:
“I am told,” said tbe doctor, “that
a plan of this sort would be imprac
ticable. I say it would be practical.
We have hedged marriage about with
many restrictions, omitting tbe most
important one of all—the one which
would make certain that marriage
would give healthy and brainy chil
dren to the world. It is high time that
something were done along this line,
and I believe that something will be
done. I not only believe that mar
riages between persons who have any
hereditary taint should be prohibited,
bnt I believe that insanity after mar
riage should be sufficient cause for di
vorce, especially if it be found that
the insane taint existed at the time of
marriage. Marriage is a contract, and
a contract cannot be made by a person
of unsound mind.
“The influence which is manufac
turing hereditary taints, ” the doctor
went on, ’is liquor. The drink habit
is constantly and rapidly growing in
ominous importance. There was a
time when it was more or less truth
fully said that ’a gentleman was not a
gentleman unless he was carried to
bed,’ and things were bad enough
then. But now, alas, it is not the
gentleman alone who gets drunk. All
men of whatever station drink. And
not only men, bnt women fall victims
to tbe habit. If you casually examine
the statistics of hospitals you will find
that tbe number of men treated for
chronic dipsomania, or drunkenness,
is muoh greater than the number of
women. But if you refer to the re
ports of private cases you will find
that the number of women treated
thus is much greater than is the num
ber of men. I fancy that, all iu all,
it about averages up.
RULES FOR BACE IMPROVEMENT.
“First. Reform the marriage sys
tem and call for certain health re
quirements before a license be granted.
“Second. Restrict the liquor traffic
and establish new and rational insti
tutions for the treatment of chronic
d runkenness.
“Then,after I had done these things,
I would see to it that the public bettor
understand certain things that have
a serious effect on the insanity rate.
Chief among these is the faot that
parents and friends make ho espeoial
effort to surround those who are un
der their care with the influence whioh
will be most beneficial to them. Next
to improper marriage and drink, over
work, worry, shock and religious and
political excitement are the most fertile
causes of insanity. When a child is of
nervous or neurotic temperament, its
parents should make every effort to
save it from any of these influences.
A thousand oases of insanity are de
veloped every year whioh might have
been esoaped had the viotim been
spared exoitements, worries or other
unfortunate influences, whioh were
really unnecessary. I do not believe
in the detailed descriptions of crimes
in the newspapers. I was very deeply
interested in the ’Jaok the Ripper’
oase, and I watohed its effeot upon the
public. Yon know 'Jaok’ sent me a
letter warning me that he was abont
to commit a series of horrid mnrders
long before he committed bis first
batohery, and long before tbe police
received any of the communications
from him which notified them of his
Impending crimes. ”
Thanks to Mr. Royal Bbannonhouse,
(a student) for a beautiful printed in
vitation to the exeroises of the Cen
tennial Commencement of the Univer
sity of North Carolina. Ohapell Hill,
N. 0. Wo much regret our inability
to attaod.
Slavery, New and Old.
It is gratifying indeed to read an
expression like the following from
Massachusetts:
The New York banks, May 23, had
180 million dollars of actual money in
the banks; they had promised to pay
on demand amounting to 561 million
dollars; and the difference between
the two amounts shows 381 millions of
credit coined out of confidence—coming
ont of nothing and returning to noth
ing at the will of the banks. Those
381 millions of credit dollars effect
exchanges and settle balances and do
tbe work that an actual dollar does.
Those banks, in answer to the demands
of business, coin a credit dollar out of
nothing, and are the strenuous advo
cates of a gold basis, which perpet
uates a system of doing business upon
credit dollars, because there is not
gold enough to make the number of
metal dollars demanded by the neces
sities of business. A credit dollar
made of their wind, is by their teach
ings. a preferable dollar to one made
of silver, which represents some labor
and always carries with it a commodi
ty of some value as collateral. Can
any one fail to understand that banks
are “in it” for business, and that a
silver dollar interferes with their mo
nopoly?
They tell also of the “surplus re
serve” of these banks tbe same date,
May 25, of 39 million dollars, and how
much “money is piled up” in the New
York banks. Where is it, and what is
it? Checks of depositors for 181 mil
lion of dollars would draw every dollar
out of the banks and leave the banks
subject to the checks of 381 million
dollars additional before the banks
had paid the dollars they were obli
gated to pay on demand by their
promises in the depositors’ book.
And every one of these credit dol
lars is hired to exchange the products
of labor; and the consumer pays the
interest charge! Out of the proceeds
of every man’s toil a portion-goes to
enrich the few who have this privi
lege ! Every producer is bonded by
law to support the banker, who, by
this law, owns a title to a portion of
what the man produces. We have
spoken only of New York; but the sys
tem covers the whole country.
Years ago the condition of four mil
lion of black men, valued at 400 mil
lions of dollars, aroused the great
moral sentiment of the nation; becanse
some few men owned these black men
and took from them all they produced
except a home, a comfortable living,
attention in sickness and burial at
death. Tbe men wbo held the title to
the product of these black men were
known as slave owners of tbe South.
Only 400 million del urs in there
“vested rights” a that time,bnt what
a terrible conflict it produced ! Today,
in New York alone, a few men bold
title to 400 million of their dollars
created out of nothing, bnt priced in
human flesh somewhere, that mm t
‘render tribute to Caesar, ” and as a
result of this system of dividing with
non-producers who hold no honest title,
homes are broken up, virtue thrown to
the winds, children starved or are
reared in ignorance, and white men
seek refuge from despair in suicide.
This system takes the proceeds of toil
and is oblivious to what beomes of
toil. What God-given right has this
system against the inalienable rights
of man to own what he produoes?
Wherein does the new slavery differ
from the old, except that its relation
with hell can be more easily and
clearly demonstrated? The slavery of
the South was God-like and Christian
oompared with the ilavery imposed up
on honest toil as an outgrowth of the
gold basis system. —Brockton, (Maas.)
Diamond.
Surnames of Pilgrim Fathers who
signed the constitution of government
in the “Mayflower”: AUerton, Alden,
Bradford, Breweter, Billing ton,
Brown, Bri e tdge, Carver, Cook,
Chilton, Craokaton. Clarke, Doty,
Eaton, English, Fuller. Fletoher,
Goodman. Gardiner, Howland, Hop
kins, Lister, Martin, Mu) I is, Mar-
neion. Priest, Rogers, Ridgedale,
Standish. Soule. Tilley, Tinker, Tur
ner, W inslow, White. Warren. Williams.
The dangers of watching solar
phenomena, even with the partial pro
tection of colored glasses, have been
pointed ont by Dr. George Maokay of
Edinburg: Galileo lost hla vision in
this manner. Bir Isaao Nawton's ret
ina was pavmanently injursd, and
Dr. Maokay has himself met with not
leee than 17 oases of impaired sight as
a result of viewing with unprotected
tf i the eclipses of *&so and mi.